2. Different research objects: the research object of factor analysis is the potential factors or dimensions, that is, to explore the internal structure and relationship behind the problem, while the research object of application method is the influence mechanism and relationship between variables.
3. Different design and implementation methods: factor analysis is usually verified by factor load threshold, common factor variance explanation rate, parallel analysis, Marseille index and other methods; Applying rules, regression analysis and structural equation model are used to test and optimize the model.
4. Different data processing methods: Factor analysis can use principal component analysis, factor analysis and other methods to extract potential factors or dimensions, while applying rules needs to convert data into path diagrams and model structure equations in order to better understand the relationship between variables.